Streit on Long Island

Now's the time to sign Ron Hainsey back in the fold with our organization to reunite with Mike Komisarek! Mark Streit, thanks for the memories, I'll miss your heart playing on the team and anchoring on the PP as well. You were one smart dude with those nifty passes on the PP that I sometimes was in awe! Bonne Chance mon ami! "We will win the Cup only with Carey Price in the nets"

Where was Mark Streit in the Playoffs??? Exactly. Buh-bye, enjoy Wang's $$$, Mark, oh and all those rabid Isles fans (sarcasm, they have none).

Overpaid salary a la max. Great job by Gainey to NOT sign him. I would be pissed if we signed Streit for 4 million. It's too early to give this guy 4 million.. Ridicilous. Mike Millbury must be GMing the ISlanders again..

I Liked Streit on the PP as a defenseman, rather have him on the wing for regular shifts though. Can he hold down a d-spot full time with the same results? Will NY now have he top power paly cause of Streit? He can definatley push for top 4 D-man 'playing' time. I got lookin at the Isles stats he is the potentionally the teams top scorer, Comrie finished with 49, also when I looked at last years roster they dressed 18 differnt players throughout the season on D. Good luck Streit, someone had to be willing to pay the big bucks for you, I'm just sad you chose the Isles, gonna be a long 4 years brother....

The only way this might come back to haunt us: If Ryder LEARNS how to: 1)puckhandle, and 2)pass, and 3)play two-way hockey, and 4)win one-on-one battles, and 5)improves his skating... In other words, I think we can be sleep well the next 3 years....

Ryder will finally get respect as a top scorer and will be given full opportunity to play under Julien. He led the Habs with 85 goals in 3 seasons. I guess he will make us pay this year when we face the Bruins. You idiots who don't recognize our mistake in mishandling him all last season will see him get 40 plus goals. He will be on the first or second line all season and will get to use his potent wrist shot on the powerplay and will wreak havok against us. Now Mark Streit is forgotten and his 62 points as a versatile player will have to be replaced . He could play defence or forward and was a fixture on the powerplay last season. With Ryder and Streit gone we better get someone in there that is great on the powerplay. Making the playoffs is not our goal we want to go to the finals. If we don't get a big addition besides Tanguay we will not reach that goal.

Welcome to the NHL, where your productivity can drop in half and you get a million dollar raise. They must be working on a different plane than the rest of us. If I took half the year off, was less than productive, I would get canned. Not with the Bruins, where they will give you a raise. The lockout was supposed to get rid of this stupidity, but by the looks of it today, idiots abound more than ever. Now with Streit I wish him well. but paying a one dimensional D man that kind of money, is foolish at best. As for Gainey, he still needs to add some size to the lineup. Maybe some of their big draft picks will come of age, or they still have a few days to go shopping on the FA market, where money is found a lot easier than brains!!!!

Oh, and not to change the topic, but the reason we collapsed in the playoffs and the bottleneck/ceiling with regards to future success is not the team, it's the coach. That's the ONLY thing that keeps me up at night with respect to the Habs.

If I recall correctly, ryder went to arbitration last summer where he was awarded what, 3 million per year because he scored 30+ goals a few years in a row. Now, he has arguably the worst season on the team, racks up a grand total of 31 points, and gets a 12 million dollar contract. The word incentive means nothing to these players. This is categorical proof that you can be a nobody, (see Finger, Jeff) and be a multimillionaire in this ridiculous excuse for a CBA.

Got to go and light the fireworks!!

The Boston Bruins have agreed to terms with winger Michael Ryder on a three-year deal at $4 million per season. The contract is still being finalized but the two parties have agreed to terms pending the final paperwork being in order. Ryder, 28, scored 14 goals and 31 points in 70 games with the Montreal Canadiens last season. Taken 216th overall by Montreal in 1998, the Bonavista, Newfoundland native scored 99 goals and 207 points in 314 career games. The move reunites Ryder with head coach Claude Julien, who coached him in Montreal, Hamilton of the American Hockey League and Hull of the Quebec Major Junior League.

So happy for RYDER, I hope he has a great 3 years in Beantown!

and the bruins make me eat my words. not the stupidest deal of the day but it adds more fuel to the fire.

In Bob we trust. We will be a playoff team next season. Forget about over-paying for a UFA this year worry more about next season on what we will pay our RFAs Komi, Higgy and Pleks and UFAs Saku and Kovy!

Ryder four mil a season??!!!???!!???!!??!!! Are all the GM's besides Gainey and Holland insanely stupid??? I really don't like this new trend. What wsa the lockout for? Was everyone just tired and wanted the year off???

I agree with those who call the signing of AK46 perhaps the best deal of the day. We did not need to throw 5 million a year on Rolston or 3-4 million a year on a 4-5 depth defenseman. We will still have money to pick up somebody useful or to stay in the hunt for Sundin.

Ryder a Bruin. 3 years at , are you ready, 12 million.

Ryder to the Bruins - 3 years at 4 million a year.

Ryder to the Bruins. 4 million per season.

A good day for hte Habs because of what we DIDN'T do. No Samsanovs, no Smolinskis or Breezers. We still have cap space if Sundin decides to play, and if not, we have the space for later in the season when other teams are tight and drooling over our young guys. For me the ONE thing I would like to see is a veteran with some cup rings - Federov for example. Someone late in their career who may not play huge minutes but can mentor and will come at a modest price. ~Listen to the smart dog!

Good for Streit. And good for Gainey.

Pretty easy to put my (Jeff) Finger on all that is wrong with today's deals... I'm glad that BG has so far landed none of the big UFAs, seeing the insane cash thrown about. Any word on where Jagr is going? Habs rule, Leafs drool...

Andree and I had a wonderfull afternoon Bar-B-Q and first time visit at HIO poster Dave Nixon"S home. He invited us to the Ont. town of Frankford. We met him and his wife for the first time. Thanks Dave, wonderfull time. Now hockey, what have I missed on the habs side of things, did we get anyone or are we staying pat.???

Today was a complete joke. Chuck V. said it best down below. Kostitsyn's signing looks ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT, compared to the money being thrown around by most of the teams who've managed to snag a free agent.

Well, count me in as one of the happy people at the end of yet another frantic - and irrationally exuberant - feeding frenzy of a day. The collective insanity displayed by these GMs is really just the product of two factors: (1) a need to compete NOW or place your job at risk in sports, the same factor that makes first term U.S. presidents never do anything other than think in four year terms, and (2) a decided lack of analytical ability when it comes to managing resources. With respect to the latter, these guys have generally failed the "area under the curve" test with respect to the amount of dollars they're throwing at people. $5M a year for Rolston (don't get me started on Finger): OK. Four year term for a 35 year old: STUPID. These old guard GMs are astute judges - at least in many cases - of hockey talent, but they ain't doctors (i.e. they fail to accept that aging will change things: Brian Campbell's speed game won't be quite as tantalizing in 2017, assuming we have enough power to freeze a hockey rink despite global warming, to say nothing that the guy will likely have skin cancer given the environment and his complexion), they ain't mathematicians neither (see Chicago - who has $20M tied up in three players right now, two of them for long term, who will be an incredible drag on the system within three years), and they aren't even hockey historians (i.e., learning from Tampa Bay's focus on three players, a lesson that oddly enough Tampa Bay itself didn't learn). What we did last year was fortuitously dodge a bullet (we wanted Souray, Briere and the contract that will be a albatross in three years, Smyth who is breaking down). What Gainey's done THIS year is premeditatedly dodged said bullet, or in good old plain English, learned from the mistakes we tried to make. Sundin at two years at any number remains fine - Hossa is a total and complete waste at more than three years. To me, the name of the game for GMs is to keep cap space by signing young talent for extended terms, draft well to replenish this young talent, and steal older proven stars like Sundin, Shanahan, Jagr, Selanne late in their careers when you can afford them and others can't. Your young stars are the currency that provides a valuable return to those who weren't patient - you can get the Brad Richards' at the trading deadline, although I'm not a fan of rentals. More importantly, you can get the expensive guys with a couple of years left in their contracts at the trading deadline, and make trades in the off-season for the same. We're stockpiling young talent. Our top two lines are all far above average but lack a superstar and a household name, with the possible exception of Kovalev. Those names will be generated with playoff success, and no one seems to be the least bit excited that we got Tanguay. Our defense is made up of two all-stars (Komi/Markov), one very steady guy (Hamrlik), an underrated cannonball (Bouillon), and two up and comers with lots of upside in 2008-09 and a good showing in 2007-2008 (O'Byrne and Gorges). We have Dandenault for back up - we don't desperately need a fourth defenseman. Our goalie is the consensus favourite for the best young goaltender in the game. Our back-up, should we sign him, was the best goalie not playing in the NHL last year. The only mistake I've seen Gainey make is not sign some of the young talent to longer contracts. Kostitsyn for three years, in this market, at that price, was amazing. It was the move of the day - all teams included. Come next time Gainey needs to sign the young guys getting their first pro contacts for longer at slightly higher wages: Pleks, Komi, and Higgins at $2.5M for four years each would have been fine because you have to have faith that two of them will work out (in this case, all three have). So sign O'Byrne for longer when he comes up, sign Sergei Kostitsyn for longer soon. . . be prepared to make cheaper mistakes in the $2millions rather than taking a flyer in the $5-9M for 8 year baloney. So why are so many histrionic characters calling talk radio and writing ridiculous "sky is falling posts"? Because we didn't do anything flashy, sexy, risky, fun. We're the same today as we were yesterday. We're the little engine that could - if such a description can be made of the league's highest scoring team and the Eastern conference champions - instead of the panicky Tampa Bay Lightning, the trigger-happy Flyers (who couldn't even avoid trying to do something this year WITHOUT cap space), the shoot for the stars (as in all-stars) New York Rangers, who seem to forget there's a cap and it's an even playing field. We're waiting in the bushes ready to attack after the markets correct, though. We'll be in that position with our talent and the affordability of who we can trade in return and the assets in the system we can give up, and actually need to because there's so many of them. These July 1st GMs subscribe to the early bird gets the worm theory. I can't argue with that. But there's nothing in that saying that suggests that the highest quality worm is acquired by that early riser.

Good luck Streiter, you will be missed. Wish you all the best buddy, and thanks for the autograph!

Hmmm...according to my calculations, the Rangers still have $8M in cap room if they want to spend all the way to the top. That leaves them barely in the race for Sundin. Streit was the F.P. Santangelo of the Habs during the regular season, but his playoff performance was nothing to write home about. I wish him the best of luck in Long Island. I doubt the Habs will have a whole lot of trouble replacing MS on the powerplay. We still need that big centre who's willing to stand in front of the net and take the punishment. I'd also be willing to take Sergei Fedorov.

I wonder how Ryder feels right now. Former 30 goal man getting no attention from the media and what can only be described as tepid interest from the GMs. Streit cashes in big and crazy deals are flying around the league and nothing for Ryder. He is either overvaluing his services (very likely) or is getting nothing but low balls.

man is fletcher lost or what?? doing the same thing jfj did before he got fired. so far edm has done a great job, stole all 3 trades. wonder what type pf money hainsey is looking for now?

Mike, take a break and put your feet up, pour yourself a wee dram, you've been at this since the crack of dawn. Very much appreciated by all posters at HIO.

So does this mean NYI respected Streit more than MTL?

Bonne chance a Streit! He would never have gotten that kind of money in Montreal nor would he have any guarantee of playing defense exclusively. Wow, 5yrs. We gave both Huet and Streit a chance to prove themselves in the NHL and now they are cashing in on a big payday.

I can see tanguay or sergei playing the point on the powerplay. I think that markov will now be the trigger man instead of the set up man like he was for streit, and tanguay or sergei will be the set up man.